Pakistan police accused of downplaying child sexual abuse scandal

PAKISTAN
The Guardian

Jon Boone in Islamabad

Monday 10 August 2015

The parents of victims of a child sexual abuse scandal that has horrified Pakistan say police tried to downplay the scale of crimes committed by a paedophile ring in a village in the country’s east.

It has been claimed that up to 280 girls and boys under the age of 14 were filmed being abused in Hussain Khan Wala, a village in Punjab province, near the Indian border. The videos were then used to blackmail their families as well as being sold to websites that host child abuse images.

Locals say police were reluctant to take action until it became a national scandal.

“Police did not even listen to me when I went to the station,” said the mother of one rape victim, who did not want her name revealed and who first took video evidence to the police in July.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.